Anchorage Daily News

On a quiet street in Campbell Park, a thief armed with a knife rushed into the garage of a woman leaving for work Friday morning, repeatedly plunged the knife into her from behind and made off with her purse, Anchorage police say.

The woman, 63-year-old Carol Lang, was seriously injured in the attack that took place about 8 a.m. She was taken to a hospital and stabilized with severe but nonfatal injuries, said Anchorage police Sgt. Ken McCoy, supervisor of the robbery and assault unit.

A spokeswoman at Providence Alaska Medical Center said Lang was released Friday afternoon.

The attack took place in the 4700 block of Grumman Street, a well-kept neighborhood off Tudor Road, at the Campbell Creek Duplex Condominiums. Lang was getting ready to go to work when she went into her garage, which is built into the home and accessible from inside. She opened the exterior door and had her back to the street when she was attacked.

"As she was getting into her vehicle, the suspect charged inside and attacked her," McCoy said. "She was stabbed multiple times in her (back) and in her legs and arm."

The man snatched Lang's purse and ran in the direction of Piper Street, Lt. Paul Honeman said. She managed to get back inside her home and call police on her own.

Officers rushed to the scene, cordoning off the area and bringing in dog teams to hunt for the offender. The initial search turned up empty for the suspect, described as a thin black man, about 6-foot-1 and wearing a black hoodie. It appears he did not know the woman he targeted, McCoy said.

Lang told police the sensation she had during the attack was of being punched and she did not feel the blade piercing her flesh, Honeman said.

"That's a fairly common occurrence in stabbing cases," McCoy said. "The victims often report the feeling of being punched and they later realize they were actually being stabbed."

The neighborhood is immediately next to an area of the Campbell Creek greenbelt occupied by large homeless camps concealed among black spruce, but there was no immediate evidence suggesting the assailant came from there, McCoy said.

"Right now, we have detectives doing neighborhood canvasses, talking to the people in the neighborhood, talking to the people in the homeless camp back there, and basically looking at all possibilities at this point," McCoy said.

By Friday afternoon, detectives had begun a forensic examination of the crime scene, crowding the street of the tightly packed development with police cars, a crime scene van and a fire truck.

Detectives took photos and collected evidence, focusing on the floor and right side of a red Ford Explorer parked in the garage.

Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call police at 786-8900.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin.